Talk:A timeline of events in the Medieval Period
Academic Events (pertaining to the writing of books, scientific discoveries, etc.) 1257 - Matthew Paris, English historian, personally interviews King Henry III of England for a week straight while compiling his major work of English history, Chronica Majora. 1260 - Jacobus de Voragine compiles his work, the Golden Legend, a late medieval best-seller. 1260 - German musical theorist Franco of Cologne publishes Ars Cantus Mensurabilis, in which he advances a new theory of musical notation in which the length of a musical note is denoted by the shape of that note, a system still used today. 1264 - Thomas Aquinas completes his theological work Summa contra Gentiles. 1265 - Correspondence from Pope Clement IV contains the first known mention of the ring of the Fisherman, an item of papal regalia then used to seal personal correspondence from the pope and later for papal bulls. 1265 - The Book of Aneirin, a Welsh manuscript of poetry, is penned. 1267 - Roger Bacon completes his work Opus Majus and sends it to Pope Clement IV, who had requested it be written; the work contians wide-ranging discussion of mathematics, optics, alchemy, astronomy, astrology, and other topics, and includes what some believe to be the first description of a magnifying glass. Bacon also completes Opus Minus, a summary of Opus Majus, later in the same year. 1269 - Pélerin de Maricourt first describes magnetic poles and remarks on the nonexistence of isolated magnetic poles. 1270 - Witelo translates Alhazen's 200-year-old treatise on optics, Kitab al-Manazir, from Arabic into Latin, bringing the work to European academic circles for the first time. 1270 - The Sanskrit fables known as the Panchatantra, dating from as early as 200 BCE, are translated into Latin from a Hebrew version by John of Capua. 1271 - Marco Polo departs from Venice with his father and uncle on his famous journey to Kublai Khan's China. 1272 - In astronomy, the recording of the Alfonsine tables is completed. 1273 - December 6 - Saint Thomas Aquinas quits his writing of Summa Theologiae — a work considered within the Roman Catholic Church to be the paramount expression of its theology — leaving it unfinished after having a mystical experience during Mass. c. 1275 - The verge escapement, a simple type of escapement used in clocks, is invented. 1275 - Ramon Llull establishes a school in Majorca to teach Arabic to Catholic preachers in an attempt to aid proselytizing to Moors. 1279 - Al-Razi's important medical writings are translated into Latin by Faraj ben Salim some 350 years after Al-Razi's death. 1280 to 1283 - The E codex of the Cantigas de Santa Maria, a collection of Portuguese musical manuscripts, is dated to between 1280 and 1283. 1282 - The technology of watermarks is introduced by paper manufacturers of Bologna, Italy. 1283 - The Libro de los juegos, an early European treatise on board games (including chess, dice, and a version of backgammon), is commissioned by King Alfonso X of Castile between 1251 and 1283. 1283 - King Ramkhamhaeng the Great of the Sukhothai kingdom creates the Thai alphabet, according to tradition. 1284 - Jean de Meun translates Vegetius' 4th century military treatise De Re Militari from Latin into French. 1285 - The English romantic poem The Lay of Havelok the Dane is written (approximate date). 1286 - March 7 - The Catholicon, a religious Latin dictionary, is completed by John Balbi of Genoa.